Scene & Heard: ‘Banana Ball’ turns baseball on its head, sends San Diego fans into a frenzy

Dakota Albritton is from tiny Ellaville, Ga. His Schley County High School baseball team played for a state championship at Savannah’s Historic Grayson Stadium in 2019.

Albritton thought he had hung up his glove for good after the tournament.

“I went to work after high school,” Albritton said. “I was pouring concrete. I was a pipe fitter. I worked in a paper mill. I did a little bit of everything.”

Albritton was pushing a wheelbarrow full of concrete four years ago when his mother called and said she had signed him up for a baseball tryout.

“What the heck did you do that for?” he asked her. “I haven’t played ball in two years.”

The tryout was back at Grayson Stadium, home of the Savannah Bananas. Once again, Albritton and his parents made the 3 1/2-hour drive west to the ballpark to give baseball one more shot.

“Halfway through the tryouts, I was telling myself, ‘This is what I’ve always loved to do,’” Albritton said. “I walked back in the dugout with these coaches looking at me. Ain’t nobody saying ‘wow’ about anything I’m doing.”

Albritton didn’t have a “plus” fastball and he didn’t hit tape-measure home runs.

But he did have one special skill — he could walk on stilts. Huh?

“Santa Claus brought me a pair of stilts when I was 10,” Albritton said. “I hopped on them and I took off running. It came completely natural to me. Then I put them up in the storage shed.”

They were dusted off and put in the trunk before leaving for Savannah.

“It just so happened my mom and dad had gone to the car (during the tryout) and gotten my stilts and leaned them up in the dugout,” Albritton said. “I told myself I’m going to leave this place and just be another name that didn’t make it, or I’m going to get some kind of a reaction out of these people.”

Albritton approached Bananas owner Jesse Cole, the P.T. Barnum of baseball, and told him about the stilts.

“Can you hit a baseball in them?” Cole asked.

“Heck yeah,” replied Albritton, who had no idea.

“I knew I could hit a ball on my feet and I knew I could walk on stilts,” he said. “The first pitch, I hit it out of the infield. I wasn’t hitting good, but I was making contact, and it was something that nobody had ever seen before.”

On the way home, Cole called Albritton and said: “Hey, Stilts, I’m going to bring you on as the first-ever entertainer/player.”

Turns out Albritton can pitch on stilts, too.

The 10-foot-9 right-hander took the mound Friday night at Petco Park with two outs in the fifth inning. He allowed a single up the middle (excuse him for not reaching down to grab the grounder) before coaxing a fly out to center field to retire the Firefighters.

It was among the signature moments accompanying the circus — the phenomenon, really — that is the Savannah Bananas, whose two-night visit came before a pair of sellout crowds thrilled to experience “Banana Ball.”

“There’s more people in one section behind the dugout than in my entire hometown,” Stilts said. “Just knowing I get to impact this many people every day of my life is unbelievable.

“It’s a blessing, and it’s something that I’ll never take for granted.”

Going Bananas

Jesse Cole is a Red Sox fan who grew up in Massachusetts. He was a legitimate pro prospect before an arm injury ended his dream of pitching at Fenway Park.

Even as a player, Cole remembers sitting in the dugout sometimes and thinking how much a game was dragging along. If he felt that way, how did the fans in the stands feel?

“Somewhere along the way, baseball had become so painful to watch that even announcers seemed exhausted from the plodding pace,” Jesse wrote in his book, “Banana Ball.”

That was in the back of his mind when Cole and his wife, Emily, started a college summer league team in Savannah in 2015.

A name-the-team contest in 2016 proved to be their greatest good fortune, with Bananas becoming the team’s nickname.

Along the way, they adopted the slogan: “Fans First, Entertainment Always.”

The club won championships and sold out games over the next couple of years, but the Coles felt something was missing.

“We wanted to jazz up the game and put fans on the edge of their seats — and make them smile,” Jesse writes.

Banana Ball rules were introduced in 2018. Home games were played with the new rules, though away games were still played conventionally.

In 2020, the Party Animals team was created to provide a regular opponent for Banana Ball games. The Savannah Bananas have been called the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball, although — unlike the Washington Generals, who played the Trotters — Bananas’ opponents have every opportunity to win the game.

Games are fast-paced, with nonstop activity bombarding the senses and showmanship emphasized as much as — or more than — athleticism.

The format proved so popular that the Bananas folded their collegiate team following the 2022 season and played only Banana Ball. They embarked on their first barnstorming tour the following year. They have played to sellouts everywhere they go.

The ranks have swelled to four teams with the addition of the Firefighters and Texas Tailgaters.

In 2026, Banana Ball is expanding to include six teams (the names are expected to be announced next month) that play a 60-game schedule. More than 150 cities have reportedly shown interest in hosting games.

How popular have the Bananas become? The Los Angeles Dodgers lead the majors with 2.4 million followers on TikTok. The Padres are third with 1.1 million followers. The Bananas have 10.7 million — nearly as many as all 30 MLB teams combined.

Cole was in Frisco, Texas, Friday night for the Texas Tailgaters’ headlining debut against the Party Animals, leaving master of ceremonies duties in San Diego to Matt Graifer, aka The Young Professor.

Cole flew to San Diego on Saturday morning, with his signature yellow tuxedo and top hat, to take the mic for the second game at Petco.

“I don’t believe we’ve even scratched the surface yet with the Savannah Bananas,” Cole writes. “We’re barely in the first inning.”

Tickets are so popular that a lottery list is compiled nearly a year in advance. Those selected can purchase tickets that start at $35 apiece. Tickets for the two games at Petco were offered on July 8, according to a Bananas spokesman. Nearly 80,000 tickets were sold out in an hour and 20 minutes.

Cool rules

Banana Ball’s 11 rules:

RULE I: WIN THE INNING, GET THE POINT — Every inning is worth one point. The team with the most runs in an inning gets a point. In the last inning, every run counts as a point.

RULE 2: TWO-HOUR TIME LIMIT — No new innings can start after two hours.

RULE 3: NO STEPPING OUT — If the hitter steps out of the box, it’s a strike.

RULE 4: NO. BUNTING. — Bunting sucks. If a hitter bunts, they are ejected from the game.

RULE 5: BATTERS CAN STEAL FIRST — On any pitch of an at-bat, the hitter can try to steal first base.

RULE 6: NO WALKS ALLOWED — If a pitcher throws ball four, it becomes a sprint. The hitter can advance to as many bases as they want while every defensive player on the field must touch the ball before it becomes live.

RULE 7: NO MOUND VISITS ALLOWED — No mound visits from coaches. Stay in your lane.

RULE 8: IF A FAN CATCHES A FOUL BALL, IT’S AN OUT — Why not let the fans get in on some of the action?

RULE 9: SHOWDOWN TIEBREAKER — If the game is tied at the end of the two-hour time limit, the game will go into a Showdown Tiebreaker. In each Showdown the hitter must score. If they score, it’s worth one point.

RULE 10: BANANA BALL CHALLENGE — Each team and the fans get the opportunity to challenge a ruling on the field.

RULE 11: GOLDEN BATTER RULE — One time a game, a team may send any hitter in the lineup to bat.

The Scene

Banana Ball fans are engaged well before the first pitch, with music, dancing by Banana players and entertainers, on-field challenges and in-the-stands antics.

Like the banana toss. One player from each team went to the upper deck Friday with a bunch of bananas. They threw the bananas from various vantage points onto the field behind the plate, where two other guys tried to catch them — in their pants.

The highlight was when Bananas catcher Bill Leroy went to the very last row behind home plate in the upper deck and heaved a banana to the young guy below who could, indeed, say, “Yes, that’s a banana in my pants.”

• The Banana Band played Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” as first pitch crept closer. When game time arrived, The Young Professor shouted into the microphone: “This is not your granddad’s pastime. … This is the greatest show in sports. This is Banana Ball.”

Moments before first pitch, fans didn’t shout “Play ball!” but instead shouted “Start the clock!” at which time a video board timer began counting down from two hours.

• Music is played before, during and after at-bats. It’s nonstop, with the volume turned to 11. Players dance at their positions — Bananas starter Noah Niznik notably punctuating strikeouts with a few moves — as well as during choreographed moments together on the mound.

Then there was home plate umpire Vincent Chapman, known as “The Dancing Ump,” who looked like he was auditioning for “Dancing with the Stars.” He did everything but the cha-cha-cha. It could be instructive for MLB umps, especially guys like Andy Fletcher and CB Bucknor, who might want to get fans more focused on their dance moves and not so much their strike zones.

• Walks are rare but eventful, with fielders tossing the ball around like a hot potato. Each fielder has to touch it before a tag can be applied, creating an opportunity to turn a base on balls into two bases.

• There were local touches. Bananas reliever Ryan Kellogg came to the mound in the third while an “Anchorman” bit played on the video. Later, a Firefighter reliever came on to the “Top Gun” theme. Don’t know his name. He wasn’t wearing a jersey. More than a dozen shirtless teammates greeted him in the outfield, perhaps providing a photo op for a 2026 Firefighters calendar.

• The Bananas called on former Padres closer Heath Bell to get them out of the sixth inning. Bell had a reputation for sprinting in from the bullpen beyond the center field wall and sliding in behind the mound when he pitched.

In this instance, he sprinted out of the dugout, touched first base and slid into second before walking to the mound. The shorter distance was understandable. After all, it has been more than a decade since Bell, 47, last played in the majors.

• Bananas third baseman KJ Jackson made a barehanded throw to end the eighth inning that was worthy of hanging a star. And Jackson was treated every bit like Manny Machado or Fernando Tatis Jr. at Petco, with kids chanted “KJ, KJ, KJ” in an effort to coax him out of the dugout for an autograph or a high-five.

This could catch on

Every so often, you hear the question posed: If you were commissioner for a day, what would you do?

Easy. Adopt Rule #8. Immediately. Catch a foul ball, record an out.

Firefighters leadoff hitter Ron Franklin Jr. paid particular attention to the balls when he fouled them off into the stands in the first inning. It was apparent why when he fouled one into the field-level stands down the left field line, a fan snagged it and Franklin slunk back to the dugout.

After a strikeout and a home run, the first inning ended when the Firefighters’ Joe Lytle popped one behind the backstop that was caught by a fan.

The crowd voiced a collective “ohhhh” of anticipation whenever a foul ball arched toward the seats.

The best catch came when San Carlos resident John Dullaghan reached out from the second row of the 200 Level and gloved a sharp foul to end the fourth for the Firefighters.

“It was huge,” said Dullaghan, who had never caught a foul ball before. “I don’t know if I would catch it if it was a Banana Ball. But it was the other team, so I had to catch it.”

Firefighters batter Stephen Cullen stared up at Dullaghan from the plate with a frown on his face before giving the fan a thumbs down.

“It was pretty cool to make a play like that and have it matter in the game,” said Dullaghan, who was at Petco with 14 family members.

How cool would if be as a fan to have your name in the box score?

And a souvenir to boot. Dullaghan didn’t have the yellow ball to show off when questioned about it a couple innings later. It was in his wife’s purse for safekeeping.

‘Dream come true’

Bell was followed to the mound in the seventh by another pitcher with San Diego ties.

Kelsie Whitmore was born at Sharp Memorial Hospital and spent her formative years locally before moving to Temecula.

She played baseball at Temecula Valley High School and on the U.S. women’s national baseball team before playing softball at Cal State Fullerton. She played independent baseball in recent years.

“The journey was like a roller coaster,” said Whitmore, who signed last month with the Bananas. “There was one point at the beginning of this year where I wasn’t sure (about the future). There weren’t any opportunities arising, and I thought, ‘Is it time for me to pursue a 9-to-5?’

“Then Banana Ball came.”

Taking the mound at Petco, she said, was a “dream come true. I’ve always wanted to play in this stadium.”

She isn’t the first woman to play for the Bananas, although Whitmore proudly pointed out she is “the first to throw a full inning and not give up any runs.”

Afterparty

The party didn’t end with the final pitch. Fans were invited to Gallagher Square afterward for the “Post-game Plaza Party,” where the Bananas band played while welcoming dancing and singing into the night.

Rancho Penasquitos’ Jason Yockey, his wife Jennifer and their young sons Jonathan and James stuck around. They enjoyed “the spontaneity and positive atmosphere,” Jason said.

Their boys were well acquainted with the Bananas from social media and had acquired Bananas gear long before the game. It seemed that way for most of the crowd, though lines 100 deep still formed at souvenir stands.

“It was so fantastic,” Jennifer said. “There’s not a lot of things the family can do together, but this is so family-friendly. All ages. Everybody.

“There’s music, dancing, singing. So much fun. It was so full of energy the entire time.”

So, are they bigger Padres fans or Banana fans?

“Oh, that’s a tough one,” John said. “I think still Padres. But they’re warming up to the Bananas.”